Family History: Does Bipolar Disorder Run In Families?

More than two million American citizens and 40 million people worldwide are diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but it is still a fairly misunderstood disease, mostly because there isn’t only one cause to it, but rather multiple poorly-researched factors that contribute to its development.

What is bipolar disorder?

Bipolar disorder is also often referred to as manic depression, due to two characteristic shifts in a person’s mood and energy levels — mania an depression. These “highs” and “lows” are nothing like the usual ups and downs that most people experience.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) explains manic behavior as impulsive, and describes people with mania as highly energetic, and without any regards for their behavior and surroundings. During manic episodes, people often lose jobs, spouses, and money, and seem not to care about their behavior. On the other hand, the depressive phase is a much less active phase. It makes people lose interest in most things that once made them happy, and often leads to suicidal behavior.

Risk factors for bipolar disorder

Science says there’s definitely a hereditary component to the disease, like with all other mental conditions, but this doesn’t mean that you will get it just because someone in your close family has it, or that someone without a family history of the disease can’t develop the condition.

Certain factors may trigger the first episode of mania or depression and increase someone’s risk of developing bipolar disorder. They often include:

• Having a close family member with this disorder.
• Being stressed most of the time.
• Frequent alcohol or drug misuse.
• Bad sleeping habits.
• Early loss of a parent.
• Childbirth.
• Physical and emotional trauma in childhood.
• Distressing life events such as divorce, job loss, or someone’s death.

Bipolar disorder usually first manifests during adolescence or the early adult years, but it is not that uncommon for children or elderly people to get it as well. Studies claim that men and women, as well as all races and ethnicities, are affected by bipolar disorder in a similar percentage, but rapid cycling — a type of bipolar disorder where a person experiences more than four episodes of mania or depression within a year — is more common in women.

Bipolar disorder does run in families

Also, first-degree relatives of people with bipolar disorder were shown to have a similar risk for developing bipolar I and bipolar II disorder, as well as unipolar depression, when compared to relatives of those in the control study, while people with unipolar depression will rarely have offspring with bipolar disorder.

Researchers have also found that offspring of parents with bipolar disorder often have poor sleeping habits when compared to the children of people without the disease. This includes headaches after sleep, daytime sleepiness, nightmares, and insomnia.

Even if you don’t have someone with bipolar disorder in your family, it’s still important to lead a healthy lifestyle because poor sleeping habits, lack of physical activity, as well as bad nutrition are a big part of poor health, both mental and physical.

The bottom line

People who have family members with some kind of mental disease, such as bipolar disorder, are often worried that they might get the disease as well, but this doesn’t have to be the case. There are many cases of bipolar without a family history of the disease.

Although you can never be sure whether you’re going to get sick — either with a mental illness or something like kidney disease or diabetes — having someone in your close family with bipolar disorder puts you at greater risk of getting it as well when compared to someone without a family history of the disease. But remember that there’s still a bigger chance of you NOT getting the disease than getting it.